1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, to forward error correction (FEC) and/or error correction code (ECC) coding within such communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. The primary goal within such communication systems is to transmit information successfully between devices. Unfortunately, many things can deleteriously affect signals transmitted within such systems resulting in degradation of or even complete failure of communication. Examples of adverse effects include interference and noise that may be caused by various sources including other communications, low-quality links, degraded or corrupted interfaces and connectors, etc.
Some communication systems use forward error correction (FEC) coding or error correction code (ECC) coding to increase the amount of information that may be transmitted between devices. When a signal incurs one or more errors during transmission, a receiver device can employ the FEC or ECC coding to try to correct those one or more errors.
A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the SNR required to achieve a given bit error ratio (BER) or symbol error ratio (SER) within a communication system. The Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's channel capacity limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the data rate per unit of bandwidth (i.e., spectral efficiency) to be used in a communication channel, having a particular signal to noise ratio (SNR), where transmission through the communication channel with arbitrarily low BER or SER is achievable.
Within the context of communication systems that employ one or more types of FEC or ECC coding, there continues to be much room for improvement related to better designed codes that provide for better performance (e.g., lower BER or SER for a given SNR). Also, a given application may operate more effectively with FEC or ECC coding particularly tailored for that application. One FEC or ECC code or a combination of multiple such codes may be more effective or efficient in one application as compared to another.